Rose's Fable
by Jessa L'Rynn
Summary: An outtake from Misadventures in Babysitting. Rose Tyler is overheard telling a perfect bedtime story to a sleepy young Jack in answer to his question.
1. Part 1 Aesop's Fable

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_About this story: It was taken out of my fic, **Misadventures in Babysitting**, because it interrupted the flow. However, it works fine as an independent story if the reader can accept this fact: Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness got caught in a botched time travel experiment and turned into children. Mostly, they are themselves, trapped in younger bodies, but they have a few glitches here and there in their behavior. This is an older work, but a related piece is owed to a bidder, so I wanted to be sure both were available!_

**Rose's Fable**

or

**Young Rose Tyler Tells an Aesop's Fable: An Out Take of Misadventures in Babysitting**

The Doctor made his way back to his room - the room where the children were sleeping - on silent feet. Like the close cropped dark hair and the blindingly fast way he moved sometimes, the silence was an artifact of the Time War, something he didn't think he'd ever lose, not any more. Just like his ability to operate heavy weaponry and scare the hell out of himself some times.

He stepped up to the door, and heard the sound of soft little voices, so he was quiet, listening to them.

"Why doesn't he do domestic, though?" Jack whispered. "He's really good at it."

Rose's voice, now, a whisper of a sigh. "Let me tell you a story, Jack," she said. "Then maybe you can get back to sleep."

"Maybe so," he agreed, his piping voice soft and sad.

"Once there was a wolf, a wise and clever wolf, and he was a lone wolf, separated from his pack for a very long time."

Her voice was soft and lilting. The Doctor leaned against the wall, carefully, listening attentively to her story, curious how it could relate to Jack's question or if she was changing the subject.

"One day, while traveling, the wolf came across a wondrous tree, where a healthy grapevine had grown, spiraling up the base of the tree, strong and very tall. And it grew out along the branches, and hanging from the branches of the tree were several bunches of grapes."

She apparently shifted in the bed, and Jack's voice complained sleepily.

"The grapes were quite the most beautiful the lone wolf had ever seen. They were plump and round and purple, and they smelled like street corners at two a.m. and houses with curtains and families and dancing. The wolf sat down under the tree to admire them, wishing that wolves could climb trees or that grapes would fall from heaven.

"They really were very beautiful, those grapes, and they made the wolf hungry and thirsty and sad, because he had tried grapes before, a very long time ago, with his pack, but now he couldn't any more, because he was a lone wolf."

"That's sad," said Jack, softly.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. Some birds came along, and the wolf made a deal with them. If they would pluck down some grapes for him, he would dig them up some nice, fresh worms. After all, wolves have claws and are quite good at digging when they want to be. The birds agreed, and the wolf started to dig, but as soon as he had unearthed some fresh worms, the birds fell to eating and forgot all about the lone wolf. As soon as they were full, they flew away, fat and happy, and the wolf still didn't have any grapes."

"Those were mean birds."

"Very," Rose agreed. There was a smile in her sweet little voice that the Doctor could hear, but she sounded so wistful and far away. "Then a squirrel came along, and everyone in the forest knew that squirrels could climb trees but weren't very smart about finding their nuts. So the wolf offered to sniff out the nuts for the squirrel and everyone knows that wolves have the very best noses in the world."

"Did the squirrel get the grapes for him, then?"

"No, it didn't. As soon as the wolf found the nuts for it, it stuffed them away and ran off, forgetting the poor wolf entirely."

"Oh, that's so sad. So what did the wolf do?"

"He sat looking longingly at the grapes for a little while longer, and then suddenly some monkeys appeared."

"You've got a weird forest, Rosie."

"Yes, thank you," she agreed with some asperity. "Do you want to hear the story or not?"

Jack giggled and, from the sound of, she gave him a quick kiss, probably on the forehead or the cheek. The Doctor felt his hearts clench in his chest and shook his head. He was no longer worried about losing her to Jack, not really. He was more worried that she would one day want that - a little boy to hug and kiss and tell stories - and that was one thing he would probably never be able to give her. Oh, he could rescue (see kidnap) some homeless child and let her drag it up in the TARDIS if it suited her fancy, but it wouldn't really be hers. And she would want him to play father to it while she played mummy and he was abysmal with children. And then something would happen, to her, or the child, or even him, and it would be a disaster or, at best, domestic hell.

"So what happened to the monkeys?"

"They didn't listen when the wolf tried to talk to them. They just scampered up the tree and started tearing up the tree leaves and the grape vine and crushing the grapes in their grubby little fists. Some of them even threw rocks at the wolf."

Interesting story, Rose, the Doctor thought. Not very happy, though.

"Stupid apes," Jack said, crossly, and the Doctor had to catch himself from laughing. He could picture the tiny Captain's expression and it was darling in his mind. He was starting to think he loved the boy almost as much as the girl, but that Jack was right - he would prefer the little flirt this size.

"Yes, very stupid apes," she agreed. "And the wolf knew that they had just come to tease him, so he ran into the forest and the monkeys followed him. He led them far, far away from the tree and got them completely lost and then he escaped from them. But he didn't go back to the tree and the grapes."

"Oh," said Jack, and it sounded like he was yawning. "Why not?"

"He knew that more monkeys might follow him, and that he wasn't a bird or a squirrel. He thought about it long and hard, and he was very, very clever. After awhile, he decided that it was pretty obvious there was something wrong with those grapes. They had smelled so strange and appealing, after all. They had looked delightful and that might just be odd. Because what could a lone wolf possibly need with grapes, really?"

"True," Jack murmured, and he sounded very nearly asleep, this time.

The Doctor could empathize. Except for his brief nap, earlier, he hadn't slept in nearly two weeks. It just wasn't safe for him to sleep. He always woke, as Jack did, with nightmares of horrors. The only difference, of course, was that he could name his. Jack couldn't, although some of Jack's most childish nightmares sounded a god-awful lot like the Doctor's most recent ones. He'd actually, after the first one, checked Jack over for temporal signatures. The only thing he'd found was that Mark, and the Time Agency's stamp on one of his time lines (they were stupid with a capital idiocy if it didn't occur to them that a person had more than one time line and Jack had almost as many as Rose, which was beyond impressive for even a Time Lord, never mind born-humans.)

He hadn't ever mentioned to anyone how disappointed (or almost surprised) he was to find that Jack didn't appear to own a pocket watch.

"So the lone wolf went back to his wanderings and, after awhile, he decided that he didn't particularly like grapes at all. And those particular grapes were probably very, very sour."

Aesop's fable, the Doctor realized with a smile. With a twist or two.

Jack yawned audibly this time. "And that's why the Doctor doesn't do domestic?" he asked in a drowsy whisper. He might not even manage to stay awake for her reply.

"Yes, Jack," she said, and her voice sounded so sad.

She knew him far too well, his Rose. He'd known that for awhile, but it was only right this instant that he realized how painfully well she knew him.

She was exactly right.

He stepped back and deliberately let the floor board creak. Rose could think he was just now coming up to check on them. He stepped through the door slowly and peered in at them.

Rose was wearing a soft little night dress Doris had lent her. It apparently belonged to one of the woman's nieces. She was propped up on a pillow in the middle of the bed, stroking the tiny Captain's hair absently.

He was out cold, apparently.

"Hi," she whispered.

"What're you doing up?" he replied, projecting his voice carefully so it whispered in her ear.

"Jack was having a nightmare. I put him back to sleep. Are you tired?"

He looked at them, his temporally distorted companions, looking even tinier in his rather large bed. (Funny, he still thought of this room as his and he'd only stayed here for six months about twenty years ago. Maybe he really was a bit of a wolf.) He wouldn't even have considered this if they were full sized. But they were little, so very young, and Jack might have another nightmare, and even Rose might have troubles, since she had all those thirteen-year-old hormones to deal with.

He unbuttoned his tuxedo shirt the rest of the way and turned to hunt through the dresser for his pajamas. He found the trousers to them, anyway, so he slipped into the en suite to change, leaving his undershirt on and tugging on the soft flannel that felt so comfortable against his skin.

He'd not appreciated all the comforts of this house while he'd lived here, considering he'd wanted more than anything to be dead instead. But Rose was here, now, and Jack, and they needed him.

By the time he came out, he found her curled up on the far side of the bed, making room for him between them. He grinned at her. "Don't get used to this," he suggested.

"The scandal," she replied, dryly, a hint of her adult voice and features shining through as she said it. "The TARDIS would leave us all in Ursa Minor or something."

"Ursa Major," he corrected. "There's a planet there with nothing but fruit and potable water."

"There you go with them funny words, again," she said, and stood up, lifting the covers. "C'mon, in you get."

"Yes, mummy," he said and crawled between the sheets.

She rolled her eyes and lay down next to him, curled up at his side.

His last memory of the night was of her soft, even breathing, and the feel of her tiny hand resting on his chest, just between his hearts.

* * *

"That's interesting," whispered the Brigadier to his wife. They'd just wandered back in from an early morning constitutional and had stopped by the Doctor's room to see if their guests were awake.

"You don't see that everyday, do you?" she agreed.

The girl slept with the Doctor's arm around her, her head on his shoulder and her hand on his chest. The boy was curled tight against the Doctor's side, his thumb in his mouth, while the Doctor had wrapped an arm around him as well. Doris and her husband exchanged a smile and walked on down the hall, having no intention of disturbing the Time Lord or his pretty babies.

They'd both taken turns at watching this man through fevered nights of hell. To see him lie so still, with that soft smile flickering on his lips was a miracle and a relief at once. They decided to retire to the back garden instead of starting breakfast just yet. Let him sleep. If anyone in the Universe deserved it, it was the Doctor.

As they let themselves out through the french doors in their bedroom, the Brigadier smiled and allowed himself to feel true hope for his friend for the first time in ages. "They may not be his children," the Brigadier observed softly. "But they are definitely his life."


	2. Part 2 The Girl Wolf

Everyone remember! The Support Stacie Author Auction is going on right now! You can get 5000 words from me for the winning bid! Also, for those interested, a 2500 word NQN 'verse fic is up for sale! More information on my LJ.

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**Rose's Fable - Part II**

or

**What Happened When the Lone Wolf Met the Domestic Wolf with the Dirty Colored Pale Hair**

Several days after his two companions had recovered from being small children, the Doctor was hiding - relaxing, not hiding, it was his ship, dammit - in a quiet corner of his library in the dead of the ship's night. He was reading, slowly to savor it, his copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Loved this story, seriously.

He heard voices from out in the main sitting area of the library and got up quietly from his chair. Rose and Jack should both be in bed right now - they were only human, after all, and had no business being up at this unholy hour. The smell of tea hit his nose, then the sound of Jack's voice incredibly hoarse. He'd had another nightmare, it seemed, and Rose had either been awake when he went searching for tea, or she'd woken up later and found him. There wasn't the smell of Jack's usual hypervodka, so the Doctor would guess the former was more likely than the latter.

He moved toward them, planning to make his presence known to them, when Jack spoke in a tone that was almost humorous. "Did you tell me stories when we were kids? I swear I remember that."

Rose laughed softly, and he loved that sound so much, he froze and just listened. He wondered if she remembered her brilliant fable from before, if she knew how perfectly right and fantastic it was. "Yeah, I think I did. You asked me why the Doctor didn't do domestic if I remember."

"Oh, yeah, that's right," said Jack. "And you told me a story about a wolf instead."

Rose chuckled. "Yeah, I did, Jack. And you told me I had a weird forest."

"I remember," he admitted. "But I mean, c'mon, you had grapes and birds and wolves and monkeys. Pretty mixed up."

"Hey, I don't tell stupid apes where to go. That's someone else's job."

The Doctor could have laughed out loud at that, but he didn't. They were silent though, for several moments, except for the click of spoons on mugs. Tea in the library was good for anyone's soul, really, and he thought again about joining them.

Once again, Jack's voice stopped him. It was soft, and pleading, and so alone. "What happened to the wolf, Rosie?" he asked, and he almost sounded about six again.

He could hear a smile in Rose's voice. "Let's see. OK. He was walking through another part of the forest a while later, and he came upon the strangest thing. It was another grapevine, and this one was in easy reach."

"Oh, good, so he got his grapes," said Jack.

"Just listen," she instructed.

"Go ahead," Jack said.

"Right. Well, this grapevine wasn't nice like the last one. It had hardly any grapes on it at all, just vines, and they weren't nice vines, either. They smelled like buses and boredom and dingy old flats. They made sounds when the wind blew through them, like bossy old ladies and obnoxious men with bad attitudes, and bill collectors demanding their money. They were tangled and tough and endless, these vines, and almost no one who ever got stuck in them would ever, ever get out."

"Oh, so he couldn't go near these ones, either," said Jack. "Huh. Did he know?"

"Yes, he realized that at once. But there was something very bad, a nasty old silkworm, and it was eating up the grape vines. There were many good things that used those vines as shelter and really needed them, even if they weren't the sort of vines the wolf liked at all. He decided that he'd better do something about the silkworm so that all the vines didn't get eaten up."

"Your wolf's nosy, Rose."

"Yeah, well, good thing, trust me." She apparently set her cup down, because he heard it click on the table.

"Well?" said Jack.

"Oh," said Rose. "Right. Well, the silkworm had eaten a path right into the middle of the grape vines, and the wolf followed it, deeper than he really wanted to go into the patch of vines. And he found then that the silkworm had spun a web right across its own path. He decided to tear that web down, and he knew just how, being a very clever wolf. He knew if he flung enough dirt at it, the web would fall and he could get through. But before he started to dig, he heard a strange sound off to the side."

"More monkeys?" asked Jack in a teasing tone.

"Nope," said Rose playfully. "The clever lone wolf looked around and saw, to his surprise, another wolf. Oh, she was a very different sort of wolf, half-tamed, really, and much smaller, and obviously not very clever. She had a sort of dirty colored pale hair, and she'd only just noticed she was trapped."

"Uh oh, damsel-in-distress," said Jack. "Now your wolf's in trouble."

Rose laughed. "Boy, is he ever," she agreed. "He ran back along the path and came back dragging a large limb. With a bit of clever navigation, and the wolf was _very _clever, he managed to use the limb to rescue the girl wolf and knock down the silkworm's web at the same time. The girl wolf tried to thank him, but he ignored her and continued along the silkworm's path."

"Oh, how noble," Jack put in cheekily.

"Always," Rose agreed. "He wandered along the path some more, and found the girl wolf again. This time she was up to her ears in grape vines. She talked to him a bit, and he helped her get free, but he left her again and continued to follow the path."

"What'd she think of all this?" asked Jack.

Rose snorted. "She thought she was bored to death living in the little den her pack had under the edge of the grapevines. She also thought he was the handsomest and most clever wolf she had ever heard of in her entire life, and she decided to follow him, to find out more about him."

"That it?" Jack asked. The Doctor could tell he was grinning.

"Yeah, all right," Rose admitted softly. "She really needed to know, she thought, if he had a proper mate and, if not, if she could be his mate, because he was obviously a better sort of wolf than the ones she'd been around all her life."

The Doctor very nearly had a double heart attack at that statement, but he convinced himself that she was telling the story for Jack's benefit and certainly not for his, and anyway, wolves and people weren't the same sort of thing.

Rose confirmed the assessment. "But that wasn't yet. It was too soon for that. At first, she just wanted to know why a wolf like that would come to her boring part of the forest and tell her such strange stories about other parts of the forest, and then tell her she didn't even _want _to know him."

"I hope she didn't take that!" Jack exclaimed.

Rose's voice went conspiratorial. "A bird told her, this ordinary girl wolf, that the lone wolf was a very special sort of wolf, nothing to do with her kind of wolf at all."

"Clever, asking the birds," Jack said. There was a sound very much like a smack and the Doctor was hard-pressed not to chuckle.

Determinedly, Rose continued, "The girl wolf didn't care, she went to find that strange lone wolf. It took her awhile to do it, because she wasn't clever at all, and the path the silkworm made didn't make sense to her at all. Eventually, in fact, he found her again, because she just really didn't know what she was doing."

"Rosie, you shouldn't be so mean to your girl wolf," Jack chided, still with humor in his voice.

"Oh, just trust me, Jack, she was very, very silly that day. But then, she did something that wasn't silly at all. She stayed with the lone wolf, this time, even when they found the silkworm and he told her to run away. The silk worm was trying to build a nest there in the middle of the grape vine so it could breed lots of other silkworms and eat the whole vine up and then the whole forest. It started spinning a web right around the lone wolf, even when he tried to explain that all forest creatures had agreed to leave each other alone."

"Not looking so good for him," Jack said petulantly. "So what'd she do?"

"She'd learned a trick from living in the grape vines all this time, and she found just the right bit of vine and jerked it very, very hard. The silkworm's nest fell down and the lone wolf stepped on it, squishing it into goo and saving the vine and the forest."

"So did he have a mate?" asked Jack playfully.

"No, he didn't," Rose said after a moment. "Lone wolf, remember? But he didn't want one, either. He wanted her to run with him if she wanted to, but she said no, because she could hear her pack calling her across the vines. He walked away. But then he came back and told her they could come back whenever she wanted to. So she looked out over the grape vines that had trapped her all her life, even though she'd never even noticed, and she made her choice. She followed the lone wolf out of them and ran with him out into the forest."

"So, sorta happy ending?" said Jack. He yawned loudly.

"Yeah, well, it was happy enough for her, anyway, though she still wanted to be his mate every day she ran with him. Sometimes she'd get so lonely, because she'd been used to having a really big pack, that she'd pick up friends along the way. Once she picked up another clever young wolf, but he turned out to be a sheep in disguise."

"A sheep?" Jack demanded, laughing merrily.

The Doctor found himself snorting over that one, and was glad Jack was laughing because he wouldn't want to be overheard at this point.

"Yeah, Jack, trust me. That one was completely wooly, and bleated and everything. Then, she found another new friend, and he was a rather clever and attractive fox. But even though she liked the fox very much, she still wanted the lone wolf to be her mate."

"Kinda lonely way to end it," Jack observed after a moment or two.

"Not really. The lone wolf had a new pack of his own, now, even if he didn't notice and even if it was a very small and very strange sort of pack, really. So he wasn't so lonely any more. The girl wolf decided she wanted to run with him for the rest of her life, no matter what he decided in the end, and the fox was fun and nearly as clever as the lone wolf, and got them out of trouble almost as often as he got them into it. So they were happy together, the three friends who made the strangest pack the forest had ever seen."

"All right," Jack conceded, "it's a good story, but I still think it should have a romantic ending."

"That's 'cuz you're hopeless," she said with a gentle tease.

"Yeah," Jack agreed. "And you're exhausted. Go on to bed. I'll be fine now."

"You sure?" she asked.

"Yes, thanks, Rosie. You should tell stories more often. We'll have to shanghai you a kindergarten or something."

"Goodnight Jack," she muttered, and the Doctor waited breathlessly until he heard the sound of the library door open.

Just before it closed again, he heard Jack say one more thing. "That lone wolf, Rose, he's not gonna be easy to convince. I say she should knock him across the nose and demand to have his puppies, but that's just me."

The sound of Rose's soft laughter accompanied the door closing. The Doctor headed back to his quiet corner, but not before he heard Jack mutter, "A TARDIS full of Time Puppies, that's what we need."

The Doctor picked up his book, found his place, and started reading again.

It was several very long moments before his sharp ears caught the sound of Jack's teacup clicking onto the table. The Captain's bare feet made no noise in the thick pile carpet. In fact, the Doctor was sure Jack had gone, until he heard, to his surprise, "I know you're back there."

There was only one thing the Doctor could possibly say to that, so he said it firmly and petulantly. "No I'm not."


End file.
